NCES CCD 2024-25 10 schools SC

Best-Resourced Schools in Bluffton, SC

Compiled from official source data by .

10 public K-12 schools in Bluffton from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
10
Schools
9,591
Students
45.7/100
Avg Resource Index
13.6:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Bluffton has more public-school enrollment than 79% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Bluffton sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

6 of Bluffton's 10 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

Campus spread matters more than the city mean

The 23-point gap between River Ridge Academy and May River High shows the range hidden by Bluffton's average Resource Investment Index. The city figure is useful for national placement, but families ultimately choose among campuses with different grade spans, enrollment, district affiliations, and reported support fields. Start with schools serving the relevant grade level, then compare the index components rather than assuming the city average describes any one classroom.

City enrollment
Top 21%
School count
Top 41%
Resource Index average
73rd percentile
Teacher staffing
72nd percentile

May River High accounts for 18.0% of all Bluffton public-school enrollment

That concentration means Bluffton-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Bluffton school enrollment varies 2.7× across entities

Bluffton school enrollment ranges from 636 students (lowest) to 1,731 students (highest), a spread of 1,095 students. That relatively narrow ratio reflects an unusually homogeneous school portfolio for a city this size. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Bluffton operates one school district — a single-district system

Bluffton's listed schools share one district boundary, budget authority, and reporting chain. That makes citywide and districtwide governance easier to compare, but it does not make individual campuses uniform: grade configuration, staffing, programs, and student need can still vary materially within the same school district.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Bluffton student-teacher ratio is 13.6:1 — low (typically associated with smaller schools or per-school staffing investment that often correlates with stronger per-student supports)

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

# School Score
1. River Ridge Academy 58
2. Bluffton Elementary 52
3. Red Cedar Elementary 52
4. Bluffton Middle 50
5. Pritchardville Elementary 45
6. Michael C. Riley Elementary 44
7. Okatie Elementary 43
8. H. E. Mccracken Middle 40
9. Bluffton High 38
10. May River High 35

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Bluffton

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Bluffton Elementary 65.1/100
  2. 2 H. E. Mccracken Middle 63.7/100
  3. 3 Bluffton High 63.3/100
  4. 4 Bluffton Middle 62.6/100
  5. 5 Red Cedar Elementary 62.3/100

What do families ask about schools in Bluffton?

Which Bluffton school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

River Ridge Academy has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Bluffton schools in this federal-data comparison at 58/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Bluffton, SC? ▼

Bluffton has 10 public schools with a total enrollment of 9,591 students. Average student-teacher ratio: 13.6:1.

Other Cities in South Carolina

Columbia
75 schools
Greenville
51 schools
Charleston
32 schools
North Charleston
30 schools
Spartanburg
29 schools
Rock Hill
27 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in South Carolina →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.